User:Dzonatas Sol/AWG Agent/Description

An Agent is a software resource which represents some portion of a user in the virtual world. Agents are hosted in agent servers. An agent may cause an avatar to be instantiated on behalf of a user.

Agents:

   * Mediate the user's message traffic
   * Mediate the user's asset inventory
   * Act as a focal point for the user's access to services in other domains
   * Act as a focal point for the user's access to utilties 
   * Act to report the user's avatar's location in the Virtual World to other parts of the system
    

Agents do not:

   * Store persistent assets (They are stored in asset servers) 

Agents are not:

   * The software resource which represents a user's avatar inside a region simulator. (Tho we need a name for that.) 

This definition is different from the current (pre agent/region domain split) use of the term agent Second Life. Currently agents are hosted on the simulator where the user's avatar resides, and handle these tasks as well as mediating the avatar's connection to the client. The term agent, in general is overloaded, and is it possible that another, more specific term would be appropriate here.